Following the Christmas break, Kenilworth were meant to be back in action with two cup games this week. On Tuesday we travelled to Nuneaton in the CDCL Open competition. On Wednesday we were in Solihull for our rearranged LDCL U8750 quarter-final, as the first step in our title defence.
The first sign that we might have a problem on Tuesday came when I entered Nuneaton's venue at 7.20, to find the club room in darkness and not a chess player in sight. By 7.30, I had been joined by the rest of the Kenilworth contingent - Paul, Mike, Keatan, and of course, Nash - but still no sign of any opposition. We phoned Colin Green who was not aware of the game. Following further calls that he made, it soon transpired that none of the Nuneaton B team were either. Colin was very apologetic and there wasn't anything he (or anyone else) could do, so we were awarded the match by default.
I guess there might be people out there who enjoy nothing better than a winter evening drive to Nuneaton for no reason whatsoever (Dominic Cummings/ Barnard Castle style) but our team were not amongst them. We had a nice chat, and went home. Colin could not have been more helpful, and it wasn't his team who had missed the fixture, so really a case of these things happen. I do think though that the Coventry League could have done more to publicise the game. It did somewhat "appear" on the fixtures list and it's better practice if clubs receive an actual email about subsequent rounds of cup competitions, to avoid things like this happening. Moan over!
Myself and Paul were the only two players from Tuesday who were also in the team for the Solihull game on Wednesday. We agreed that we could not face another wasted journey, so I did confirm with Julian that Solihull hadn't forgotten about this one - fortunately they hadn't!
On the night we ran out comfortable 4-1 winners, despite the teams being very evenly matched on paper. I did not see much of the other games. Dhairya had a very good win on Board 2 against Tony Sadler - continuing his excellent form and making another great contribution to the team. So I'll give him the award for "performance of the night." Dan Bayliss also brought home the full point on Board 5 against Mike Nevin, having been in full control throughout the proceedings.
I was our third winner, on Board 3 against Paul Silverman. For the first time in an OTB game, I got to play a gambit line (sorry, no spoilers) that I have played quite a lot in online blitz. Almost as soon as I played the move, I could hear the instructional video ringing in my head. "Don't play this in a must win game, especially if you are playing for money." While of course we weren't playing for money, I did immediately wonder if I had taken an unnecessary risk. However, Paul declined the pawn, I got a terrific lead in development and the tactics flowed from there. I've had some interesting games with Paul in the past, and while this one was too, it was pretty comfortable.
In relation to the draws, Paul Badger did a good job of neutralising Ray Carpenter on Board 1. They were ultimately the last to finish, with honours even. Perhaps the most interesting story of the night was on Board 4, where Dylan was playing Antony Mccool. I had long since accepted that we were going to lose this one, as frankly Dylan's position looked terrible. However, a little resilience and a bit of a plan can go a long way. Down to just king and rook, Dylan noticed that he could place his king on a square where it could not move. Antony did not take long enough to consider the implications, hastily pushing a pawn in what he must have assumed was a won position. Instantly Dylan checked Antony's king with his rook. The rook could have been taken, but this would have left stalemate. Wherever Antony's king went, Dylan's rook was going to follow, so Dylan had clutched a draw out of nothing!
So a very good night! We did not lose a game and had put up a good start to our title defence. We'll now look forward to the next round, ever hopeful that our opponents will turn up.
